Life Lines: Community, Family, and Assimilation among Asian Indian Immigrants

by Jean Bacon

Overview

Asian Indians figure prominently among the educated, middle class subset of contemporary immigrants. They move quickly into residences, jobs, and lifestyles that provide little opportunity with fellow migrants, yet they continue to see themselves as a distinctive community within contemporary American society. In Life Lines Bacon chronicles the creation of a community—Indian-born parents and their children living in the Chicago metropolitan area—bound by neither geographic proximity, nor institutional ties, and explores the processes through which ethnic identity is transmitted to the next generation.
Bacon's study centers upon the engrossing portraits of five immigrant families, each one a complex tapestry woven from the distinctive voices of its family members. Both extensive field work among community organizations and analyses of ethnic media help Bacon expose the complicated interplay between the private social interactions of family life and the stylized rhetoric of "Indianness" that permeates public life.
This inventive analysis suggests that the process of assimilation which these families undergo parallels the assimilation process experienced by anyone who conceives of him or herself as a member of a distinctive community in search of a place in American society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195099737
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/02/1997
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.13(w) x 9.19(h) x 0.87(d)
Lexile:	1190L (what's this?)

Editorial Reviews

"By presenting their views in their conversational styles, the author captures the rich texture of her subjects' culture along with their viewpoints...a very important study, with a great deal to tell us about immigration, assimilation, community, and social identity formation."—Indo-American News

"The most interesting parts of the book...are the family portraits....Bacon offers interview material rich with information, traversing the many intergenerational and cultural tensions that exist between parents and children, and analyzing the complicated assimilation process at work in these families....The book makes interesting reading and offers us a useful look at a community that is growing and changing in this city."—The Chicago Tribune

"[Bacon's] study of the Asian Indian Community in Chicago adds immeasureably to our understanding of the unique travails experienced by Asian Indians in their adopted homeland.... Life Lines is a highly informative and enjoyable book."—Social Forces

"...absolutely essential reading for those who are concerned with South Asian immigrant communities, not only in the United States but in other parts of the world as well. Bacon's analysis of how elements of an Indian worldview shape and play out in Indian immigrant community life is extremely insightful."—American Journal of Sociology

From the Publisher